Real estate and housing students wrapped up a successful semester of case competitions last month, hosting and competing at the University of Guelph Undergraduate Real Estate Case Competition in Toronto.

The competition was held at Deloitte’s head office on March 26th, and hosted 12 teams from across North America. Awards were available to teams placing in the top 4, as well as teams with the Best Financial Analysis, Best Sustainability Features, and Best Market Analysis.

U of G’s team – Pendulum Developments – placed second in the competition.

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“The competition was certainly a challenge, but it was also very rewarding,” says Alyssa Colautti, U of G student on Pendulum Developments. “Hearing our ideas and concepts being validated was encouraging, and having the opportunity to network with industry members proved invaluable. We learned lessons that simply cannot be taught in a classroom.”

The 12 teams came from the University of Guelph, University of Waterloo, Western University, Dalhousie University, University of Calgary, York University, Queen’s University, Ryerson University, University of British Columbia, Cornell University, University of Connecticut, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Ohio State University.

Each team had a month to complete a re-development proposal for a parcel of land owned by First Capital Realty, where the Mr. Christie’s factory site is in Toronto. Each proposal was presented to a panel of judges from industry.

“Each team had very innovative ideas about what to do with the site in order to engage the surrounding community,” says Tyler Randa, Vice President of Corporate Relations for URECC. “Aside from the competition itself, there was an incredible keynote by Michael Emory, President and CEO of Allied Properties REIT, and it was great to network with both industry professionals and other students.”

The final results were:

• First place: DBK Consultants – Ryerson University
• Second Place: Pendulum Developments – University of Guelph
• Third Place: SCP – Cornell University
• Fourth Place: DREAM – Dalhousie University

Ryerson was also awarded Best Financial Analysis, Best Sustainability Features and Best Market Analysis.

It has been a successful semester for U of G students, who had previously swept the top two spots [2] at the Ryerson Case Competition in February.